New Delhi: Former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Chinmayanand has been arrested on Friday by the special investigation team probing charges of abduction against him. While a 23-year-old law student from a university in Shahjahanpur that he is the director of has accused him of rape, it appears that he has not yet been charged with sexual assault.
According to News18, he was taken for a medical examination to Shahjahanpur district hospital after his arrest.
On Wednesday, the SIT had said that an arrest will be made only once there is “solid evidence”. “The matter is being investigated and any arrest will only be made on the ground of solid evidence,” Hindustan Times quoted inspector general of police Naveen Arora, who is heading the SIT, as saying.
More than 30 people have so far been interrogated by the SIT, including the woman’s classmates and her father. Chinmayanand was questioned for eight hours on September 12.
The law student who has accused Chinmayanand of raping her had earlier expressed distress that the BJP leader had not been arrested or charged with rape, even saying that she would set herself ablaze if her testimony was not taken into account.
The SIT is probing two cases – one filed by the woman’s father, who accused Chinmayanand of abducting her, and one against an unknown person for allegedly threatening and attempting to extort Chinamayanand.
The woman made her statement in front of a magistrate on Monday. After recording the statement, she said, “I have told the magistrate about the rape complaint I gave in New Delhi, my missing spectacles and a chip from the hostel room. I also informed about the bedding and liquor bottles, which were removed from the Chinmayanand’s room.”
She has also reportedly given the SIT 43 videos to support her allegations.
In August, the woman had released a video in which she accused Chinmayanand of rape and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityananth to help her. She had also said then that Chinmayanand was threatening to kill her.
“A big leader of the sant society, who has destroyed the lives of several girls, has been threatening my life. I request Modi ji and Yogi ji to please help me. He has even threatened to kill my family. Only I know what I have been going through…Modi ji please help me, he is a sanyasi and is threatening that the police, DM and everyone else is on his side and no one can harm him. I request you all for justice,” she said in the video.